Members of UCSD Community Open Hearts, Pocketbooks for Haiti Outreach
Roxana Popescu | January 19, 2010
UC San Diego students hold a candlelight vigil for Haiti.
(Photo / Kevin Wu, Guardian)
Haiti Relief Resources: Find resources for information and opportunities to provide support through donations of money, services, and goods.
Some gave dollars, some handed over bags of change they’d been saving; others merely walked by and apologized. Some gave because they have been to Haiti, and many more gave even though they haven’t.
Then there were the middle school students of Nativity Prep Academy in southeast San Diego, who donated more than $200 – delivered in two bulging white envelopes by a pair of smiling girls – because it felt like the right thing to do.
All along library walk Friday, students holding milk jugs and water bottles asked for change to help Red Cross relief efforts in Haiti. On Thursday, students hosted another fundraiser and a vigil to honor the quake’s victims. The total amount raised as of Friday afternoon topped $6,000.
More plans are underway. At 7 p.m. today, students will meet to develop an action plan for future fund raising. That meeting will take place at the Student Services Center, Conference Room 513.
The events are being sponsored by the Community Law Project and UCSD’s InterVarsity Christian Fellowship. In addition, the Associated Students gave $400 and Chancellor Marye Anne Fox made a personal donation to help support the cause.
UCSD students ask for change – and sometimes receive wads of bills – for victims of last week’s earthquake in Haiti.
But the real force behind the initiatives is Kenny Pettersen, a UCSD senior and aspiring specialist in public health and infectious diseases.
For Pettersen, who’s from Murrieta, Haiti isn’t just the latest cataclysm. It’s personal. He’s been there seven times, volunteering with the Haiti Endowment Fund.
His curiosity about the country, and desire to make an impact there, initially developed as he witnessed his father volunteer there.
“I remember talking to him one time on a satellite phone. It was his first time there, Pettersen said. “He was describing the living conditions and how he was really actually excited to be there, because he felt for the first time in his life he was really making a difference.”
Pettersen said he thought, “Wow, it’s really powerful to hear my dad saying that.”
A few years later, Pettersen made his own trek and discovered communities of optimistic and resourceful people making the best of life despite living in difficult circumstances. He cited studies that show developed nations have high rates of depression.
Kenny Pettersen, a UCSD senior who initiated the fund raising efforts, speaks with local media about the importance of supporting Haiti during this crisis.
“In Haiti, there’s no prevalence of depression. It says a lot about what it means to be happy,” Pettersen said.
When he heard the news Tuesday, Pettersen immediately started trying to gauge the damage by following news reports online.
Once he realized it was serious, his thoughts went to his closest friend there, Bernard, who is two years older and studying agriculture. They met on one of Pettersen’s trips when Bernard worked as a translator, and they discovered they have similar aspirations.
“He wants to teach his people how to better grow crops. That was really inspiring for me. Here’s a guy who’s an orphan. He was trying so hard in school because he cares so much about his people,” Pettersen said. “Here’s a guy that could just kind of not care, and kind of like accept being apathetic or what not. Instead he decided to do something.”
Pettersen heard from his friend Thursday morning.
Few have been that lucky.
John Compere, who lives now in San Diego and came to the UCSD campus Friday to witness the fund raising activities, said phone calls to his family have hit a dead end. No ring, no answer, no signal.
Students take a quick break from asking for donations to pose with their sign and stand on Library Walk.
“I’m shaking,” he said.
But watching the campus community rally behind his nation has provided some comfort.
Maureen Malingkes, a junior, spent the day volunteering. She worked a dental clinic in Haiti, and she got involved because she realized that she could indeed make a difference.
“Being so far away from it, I felt like I couldn’t really do anything but, like, pray and that was it,” she said. Pettersen called her and invited her to participate, explained what his plans were, and she seized the opportunity.
For Pettersen, the wakeup call came at 5 a.m. the morning after the earthquake. He’d fallen asleep thinking about it, and jumped out of bed with a mixture of energy and dread. He worried that no one would mobilize or reach out or do anything. He wondered why people were so apathetic. And then it dawned on him that there was nothing holding him back.
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